Current Obsession: Rituel de Fille Ash + Ember Eye Soots

“For us, Rituel de Fille evokes a sense of magic, intuition and a connection with the instinctive desire to adorn the body.”

Rituel de Fille (pronunced Ritu-elle d’Fee) is a name you should know. The beauty company specializing in “spellbinding natural color” was founded by the Ramos sisters — three of them, and all inspired by “the magical side of natural ingredients, and the ceremonial power of pigment.” Highly experienced makeup artists in the fashion and entertainment industries, they use their unique product expertise for exacting standards for color performance. (I mean, have you seen our latest Halloween post featuring their makeup? Check it out here…)

Every Rituel de Fille color is obsessively formulated in-house to meet precise standards. “We approach our formulation like potion-making: we carefully select each pigment, oil and wax for a clear purpose, and develop each color from the ground up to contain the fewest possible ingredients. We use nothing extraneous, and avoid fillers. This attention to detail creates intense color while maintaining velvety textures.”

Learn more about the sisters, their company, and the beautiful Ash and Ember Eye Soots Free People is proud to carry. Trust us, you are going to want to swipe one (or two… or all six) before they are gone!

How did Rituel de Fille come to fruition? When did you know you wanted to own your own company?

We come from a family of artists and entrepreneurs, and we’ve all had lifelong fascinations with makeup in our own ways. Even though all of our individual careers had taken us in unique directions, creating our own makeup line was an aspiration since we were very young.

The three of us were all fascinated by the inherent beauty of natural ingredients, and were inspired by the strength of color and simplicity of composition in historical cosmetics — such as Cleopatra’s signature red lipstick, which she made from just beeswax, carmine and crushed ants. At the same time, we wanted to create something that felt special and beautiful while maintaining high standards of modern color performance.

Looking out into the market, we didn’t see any other lines approaching formulation with the kind of bold minimalism that we wanted to achieve. And for us, natural also brought a feeling of significance and a sense of magic — more like creating chromatic potions. As our products and palette evolved, we maintained an eye to bold colors that would feel satisfying and powerful to use, keeping the emphasis on cream products that could be applied with your fingertips.

Though Rituel de Fille as a brand launched just a couple of years ago, it evolved out of years of research and experimentation. When we first started developing our products, Katherine was living in New York while Caroline and Michelle were in Los Angeles, and we were all shipping raw ingredients and formulas back and forth between coasts, doing experiments in our kitchens. Every natural pigment has its own unique characteristics and challenges, and achieving dense natural pigmentation without the help of synthetics presented challenges far beyond what we could have anticipated — but we’re thrilled to have emerged on the other side with truly unique formulas.

How did you come up with the name Rituel de Fille?

We wanted a name that encompassed ritual and ceremony, that was beautiful while maintaining strength, that felt elevated, and that helped define our world — while still allowing room for others to find personal meaning within it. For us, Rituel de Fille evokes a sense of magic, intuition and a connection with the instinctive desire to adorn the body.

We had iterated through so many different names for months, and went back and forth between countless options, but after so much conversation and debate, as soon as Rituel de Fille surfaced we immediately all knew it was right.

I have two sisters myself. What is the most rewarding thing about working together? Are there any challenges?

We really believe that our brand thrives because we are bonded as sisters. We support each other creatively and emotionally and we are there to help each other when times get difficult. We take care of each other, always. We’ve all had to be willing to do so much, and to give so much of ourselves to create this, it wouldn’t have been possible without the love we have for each other.

It’s been an incredible experience and we have only gotten closer through the process, though there was some work to be done. We have all had to question and rebuild some of the relationship dynamics we had solidified over a lifetime. When you meet a normal coworker, you only get to know them in that moment, only as the person they’ve become through decades of growth and change that you didn’t see. But certain expectations grow out of knowing someone through many stages of their development, so becoming true collaborators and co-founders together required letting go of a lot of that and seeing each other fully for who we all are now.

Your soots are wonderful! Besides being beautiful, why should readers run to purchase one (or six) of their own?

Ash and Ember Eye Soots are truly unique products, and once you have mastered them, they can become one of the most beautiful, versatile products in your collection.

Unique to Rituel de Fille, Ash and Ember Eye Soots are dense, extraordinarily pigmented, long-wearing eye colors with a texture between a powder and cream. These beautiful pots of color can be used as a liner, a shadow or a primer, but they are not formulated like any of those — which makes the application unique as well. Instead, they are a carefully balanced, extremely minimal formulation based on just natural pigment and a touch of oil. The secret is in how they are mixed and filled, using artistry and technique that creates their distinct texture. All of this must be done by hand as they don’t contain any waxes, so they cannot simply be melted and poured into their jars like a standard cream shadow or liner.

The absence of wax in the formulas also means that they will not melt with the warmth of your skin, making them highly resistant to creasing and fading. The colors will maintain their vibrancy and stay where applied for a remarkably long time.

For the makeup challenged like me, can you share any tips or tricks when applying the soots?

You might notice that the opening of the jars seems small compared to what you may expect from a standard eye shadow or gel liner. Though it may surprise you when you open your first jar, this is by design. As these are unusual products unlike anything else, and they have a totally different texture than shadows and liners you may be used to, you will want to pick up the color differently, too. The packaging gently guides you toward the best way to use your Eye Soot: though you might be used to swiping horizontally, Eye Soots should be picked up with vertical pressure instead. The color transfers and applies much better this way.

With either fingertips or brushes, apply vertical pressure; think pressing, rather than just swiping. And unlike traditional pressed eye shadows, you don’t have to be delicate with your Eye Soots as the product can’t crack or shatter.

We recommend using dense, firmer bristled brushes to be able to pick up the most product, and some of the easiest shapes to start with are smudge brushes and angled liner brushes. However, once you are used to the texture and application of Ash and Ember Eye Soots, you’ll find that they can be used with a wide array of brush styles.

Some fans have shared with us that they like to scoop out a little bit of product and warm it on the back of their hand before applying. This step is not required, but you might find that you like to use them this way, too.

This may be a dense questions, but what colors do you recommend for people with brown, blue, or green eyes?

Ash and Ember Eye Soot shades tend to be flattering on many complexions and eye colors, so we encourage experimenting, but there are some easy and very safe shades to0. Seven Sisters looks fantastic on blue eyes. Nightshade and Love Spell are incredible for brown eyes. Golden Age and Serpent de Mer will beautifully flatter green and hazel eyes. Obsidian is universal.

What is next for Rituel de Fille?

We are absolutely thrilled to be launching a new category this year: Rare Light Luminizers, coming soon to Free People! We experimented with highlighters for a long while to create something incredible that felt right for us, and we think we’ve landed on something really special in the three shades we’ve created. In 2017, we have some amazing new projects in the works that we’re very excited to soon share.